Car insurance went up to 5.5k from 1k 2 years after accident, what could be the reason?

[antoninconohan]

[US, NJ]

I have a 2018 Cayenne, I bought it CPO in Jun 2021. I have been GEICO auto insurance holder since 2016; for 100k/300k coverage I was paying $590/6 months for this car. Then I got into an accident (at fault) in Nov 2021. Since then I have changed addresses too and my insurance rate had gradually gone up to $1050/6 months (H2 2023). Now, after 2 years, GEICO sent me a quote of $5550/6 months for renewal in Dec 23. Since the accident I have barely driven the car. So, I dont have any other infraction at all.

I have since contacted GEICO; first they said I have 5 points added to my record. Went to dmv, got my complete abstract - 0 points. Then contacted again twice and they are only saying that they have re-evaluated and that is my new quote, and the underwriters reevaluated on 16th Oct. Now, on Nov 13, I got a letter (through GEICO) from the other party involved in the accident 2 years ago suing me. I thought if that was the reason for the increase, however, the reevaluation was apparently done a month before!

I am totally flabbergasted. I unerstand, free market and all and most likely I will have to sell my car; I am looking for closure, a reason - what triggered this absurd increase! I am not even sure if whatever it is can be fixed! There is definitely something there, as I tried to get coverage from others and they flat out said they cannot provide coverage! One more thing I can think of is my car goes out of warranty at the end of December.

I was told, post accident it increases and then it takes about 3-5 years to go back to normal. But in this case, after 2 years mine is increasing 5x after post accident 2x increase! Any idea what might be the contributing factors here and my best course of action? Where can I get more information? I requested LexisNexis CLUE report, and that doesnt show any anomaly. Even if I dont drive the car, I dont think I can keep my car without insurance in NJ, can I? I still have some loan amount left with the bank, but I can pay it off now if I need to.

Edit: talked to Progressive. They gave me same coverage for $83/month. I upped to 250k/500k and few other things and that bumped the rate to $96/month. Now I’m even more confused.

 

[jodydawn]

@antoninconohan lots of things are causing rate increases besides you, zip code, cost of fixing cars these days, etc. read up on the insurance industry these days. rates are skyrocketing everywhere.

 

[antoninconohan]

@jodydawn I saw some of them. Geico themselves sent me an email in June mentioning potentially 19% increase. But mine is 400% increase! And i have no idea why.

 

[jodydawn]

@antoninconohan it happens. shop around. the 400% increase is a "go away" price.

 

[former32%C2%B0mason]

@antoninconohan I understand wanting to find a reason for the increase, but why not just switch companies? At least shop around. Geico clearly doesn't want to do business with you anymore. Why pay that much if you don't have to? If you get other quotes that are all just as high, you will know that's your price.

 

[antoninconohan]

@former32%C2%B0mason I did. I think I mentioned in the post, I tried getting coverage from 3 other companies, they said they cannot provide coverage. That leads me to believe there is definitely something wrong going on, but I am not sure how I can figure out what is wrong.

 

[former32%C2%B0mason]

@antoninconohan Sorry I missed that part. Could it be your credit score? I know some states are just pulling back and being very conservative in writing new business because of the market. Did you reach out to any of the other companies you tried to quote and ask why they declined you?

At this point, you need to speak with an independent agent and have them run your information. They should be able to at least tell you why this is happening.

 

[antoninconohan]

@former32%C2%B0mason Thank you for the suggestions, appreciate it. I’ll try reaching out to them if they give me any reason.
It’s not my credit score, I checked, it hovers around 835-840. I got full background report from LexisNexis too, nothing abnormal.

 

[georgia56]

@antoninconohan If every company doesn’t want to offer their services to you, then there’s something in your profile that makes you completely undesirable to insure. It may be a mistake, but it also might just be how the companies are choosing to proceed nowadays. Most insurance companies are completely backing out of California—maybe New Jersey is on their short list as well. It’s difficult to know for sure.

 

[antoninconohan]

@georgia56 Yeah, that’s what I’m curious about. I get it, for some reason they now deem me uninsurable; doesn’t matter however unjust I feel that is, it is what it is. Only if there was a way to know exactly what factored into that decision making process.

 

[wibble]

@antoninconohan Insurance companies have their own point system for tickets and accidents. That is where the 5 points are coming from. It has nothing to do with how many points are on your license with the DMV. I wouldn't get hung up on how many points there are either. Insurancr companies get to decide how much they charge per point as well, so 5 points with Geico might be more expensive than 7 points with Progressive, for example.

 

[antoninconohan]

@wibble Thank you, yeah I did indeed confuse that with dmv points initially.

 

[resjudicata]

@antoninconohan What number did you contact Geico with? My insurance been going up $50 every 6 months too